Table Of ContentSports Sponsorship and
Brand Development
The Subaru and Jaguar Stories
Martin Beck-Burridge and
Jeremy Walton
SPORTS SPONSORSHIP AND
BRAND DEVELOPMENT
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Sports Sponsorship and
Brand Development
The Subaru and Jaguar Stories
Martin Beck-Burridge and
Jeremy Walton
©Martin Beck-Burridge & Jeremy Walton 2001
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
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No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
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issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this
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The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the
authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2001 by
PALGRAVE
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of
St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and
Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-1-349-42524-2 ISBN 978-0-230-50822-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230508224
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beck-Burridge, Martin.
Sports sponsorship and brand development : the Subaru
and Jaguar stories / Martin Beck Burridge & Jeremy Walton.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sports sponsorship. 2. Automobile racing—Economic
aspects. 3. Automobiles—Marketing. 4. Fuji Jåkågyå
Kabushiki Kaisha. 5. Jaguar Cars Ltd. I. Walton, Jeremy,
1946- II. Title.
GV716 .B43 2001
338.4'379672—dc21
2001046007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
Formatted by
The Ascenders Partnership, Basingstoke
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
PART I
THE BACKGROUND
1 Introduction 3
2 Sport,Sponsorship and Marketing 11
PART II
THE STORY OF TWO CAMPAIGNS: THE SUBARU STORY
3 Fuji Heavy Industries and Subaru in the 1980s 47
4 Prodrive and Fuji Heavy Industries:The Development of the
Relationship 58
5 The Results of the Relationship 69
6 Portrait of the Partner 83
PART III
THE STORY OF TWO CAMPAIGNS: THE JAGUAR STORY
7 Jaguar,JaguarSport and Le Mans 93
8 On Track to Post-Leyland Recovery 103
9 From Track Stars to Major Commercial Players 113
10 Recreating a Brand through Sponsored Motor Racing 126
11 Achieving Global Brand Recognition 140
PART IV
CONCLUSIONS
12 Lessons from the Campaigns 157
Index 173
Acknowledgements
The authors are extremely grateful for the assistance and co-operation of Fuji
Heavy Industries, and Jaguar Cars Ltd. Specifically Subaru Tecnica
International and Prodrive gave generously of their time and practical help.
As did key personnel at Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust and TWR Group.
Without them this case study would not have been completed.
At Fuji Heavy Industries,special thanks are due to Mr Katsuhiro (Keith)
Yokoyama, Manager of Corporate Planning Department and Secretary to
the President of Fuji Heavy Industries for the excellent arrangements he
made and for his patience and forbearance with Martin Burridge.
Jeremy Walton would like to thank the following individuals for their time
and co-operation:Jaguar Cars Sales & Marketing Director,Roger Putnam,
and Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (JDHT) General Manager, Howard
Davies.Also the following staff from Jaguar Communications and Public
Affairs; Stuart Dyble for his enthusiastic support, Martin Broomer for his
guidance,Cecile Simon for his practical assistance beyond the call of duty
and Sally Lane,Manager Corporate Affairs.At TWR,our particular thanks
go to Paul Davis who supplied production statistics that the authors had not
seen previously.
Martin Beck-Burridge is especially grateful to the following executives of
Fuji Heavy Industries and Subaru Tecnica International who were
interviewed during December 1999. Mr Takeshi Tanaka, President of Fuji
Heavy Industries, Mr Takemasa Yamada, President of Subaru Tecnica
International,Mr Noriyuki Koseki of Fuji Heavy Industries and Subaru.Mr
Kuze and Mr Kazuyuki Narita were kind enough to meet the author in Tokyo
and relate their experiences from the start of the Subaru and Prodrive
relationship.Also,particular thanks to Mr Keith Yokoyama for his patience
and efforts over many months.
Many others helped with information and their experiences and the
authors are grateful to them all for their frankness and co-operation.
Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.
vi
To Thomas
and our grandchildren
PART I
THE BACKGROUND
1
1
Introduction
THE world’s automobile industry has, for at least the last two decades,
been characterized by over-capacity of production in all sectors, an
excess supply of products to all market segments and intense competition
within the industry.Manufacturers have been constantly pursuing strategies
and policies that will provide them with opportunities for escaping the
dominance of price competition,which is still limiting the profit margins of
even the largest mass manufacturers. However, for lower volume manu-
facturers the problem is compounded,because they are unable to pursue the
same economies of scale production and cannot compete against the major
mass manufacturers on price alone.They are forced to pursue more selective
and aggressive policies of differentiation and originality in order to succeed,
and therefore avoid facing the mass manufacturers head-on.
The large-scale mass manufacturers and the smaller niche players in the
automotive sector compete in global markets characterized by factors that
are redolent of the industry’s one hundred years of history,particularly in the
major markets of the United States of America and Western Europe.These
can be summarized as follows:
• Mature markets with massive over-capacity of supply,probably 25 per cent
in 2000
• Low demand growth,35.1 millions in 1999 to 39.4 millions in 2000;capacity
growing faster than demand
• Mass manufacturers increasingly searching for specialist niches for differ-
entiated products
• Product and production technology leading to commoditization of the
product
• Growing wealth, information and knowledge of customers leading to
diverse demands for individual products
• Intense and increasing market fragmentation
These trends have led to increasing rivalry between the mass
manufacturers themselves as they have struggled to increase market share in
already saturated markets. In addition the smaller manufacturers such as
Subaru,Porsche and others,have focused on being niche players,as the larger
companies utilize modern production technology to deliver increasing
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